There are a lot of tumbleweeds rolling around the Giants news stream these days, so this is just aimed to get you caught up:

Ben Badler of Baseball America wrote about the Top 10 teams to signMasahiro Tanaka, and the Giants didn’t make the list (shocker, I know). While we would all love the Giants to take advantage of Tanaka being 25 years old (just a year older than Madison Bumgarner), their pitching rotation is set and their signing Tanaka would be a huge upset. Badler lists the top four favorites as (in order): Mariners, Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs.

CSN Bay Area beat writer Andrew Baggarly wrote about Angel Villalona in an article that got published this morning. While you know about Villalona’s history of a murder charge that was eventually dropped, maybe some new info for us would be how much Steve Decker believes in the 23 year old. There are a couple of good quotes from Decker, now the Giants hitting coordinator, and I’ll share this one:

“When you break down his swing mechanics at 7 in the morning, this kid shows you the ability,” Decker said. “The breakdown is that when it’s game time, it becomes, ‘I’ll show everyone around here I’m the best power hitter in this organization.’ You can’t let the brain or the ego get in the way of what will make you successful major league hitter.”

Team beat writer Chris Haft just had an inbox, with a good question on prospect on Edwin Escobar, but an interesting comment on now KIA Tiger Brett Pill. Haft pointed out earlier this year that Jeff Francoeur had taken AB from Pill as the Giants tried to go all Pat Burrell on the LF situation, but since that went as it did, there are some left wondering what the 29-year old could have produced. The quote that Haft gives, “But the sense here is that the Giants jettisoned Pill without fully discovering what they had in him,” is interesting just because my bias is that Pill probably would not have offered much, but was it worth a gamble to try Francoeur over Pill? Looking back and knowing how the season went, it’s easy to say Pill should have just got the AB, and who’s to say Pill couldn’t have gone on a hot streak then? Not being condescending, but I really don’t know what to think on the whole Pill vs. Francoeur battle, but my gut agrees that Pill should probably have got the time in what would become Pill’s last year with the Giants.

Until then, keep up with the news on the MiLB ballpark fire in Michigan, home of the Tigers’ Class A affiliate. As of the time this post was published, this is the live stream. Thoughts going out to everyone out there.

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